Crowdsourcing: Using the Power of the Masses
Posted by scottjduffy on January 9, 2008
One of the hottest buzzwords of The Web starting in September 2005 - one which I am still surprised is in use and has not been replaced – is “Web 2.0″. Web 2.0 was coined by publisher Tim O’Reilly to describe the “second generation” of web sites and businesses. As buzzwords usually are, many companies have become associated with the term:
-
Digg.com is the web 2.0 approach to keeping up with technology and other news. Slashdot is the web 1.0 approach.
-
Flickr is the web 2.0 approach to sharing photos. Yahoo Photos is the web 1.0 approach.
-
Google Mail is the web 2.0 approach to email. Hotmail (the old version) is the web 1.0 approach.
People seem to be throwing around the term Web 2.0 like rice at a wedding. Every new web business these days has to have a web 2.0 angle. But what is Web 2.0 exactly? Is there a way to define it, or has the term become so misused as to become meaningless?
To me, the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 can be convered by the following four things:
-
Emphasis on usability: less screen clutter, bigger fonts, pretty pastel colors, AJAX elements. An overall easier and more intuitive experience for customers
-
New business models, particularly the rise of freemiums: core features are free and a small one-time or monthly payment for more features. And yes you can make a profit just on Google Ads.
-
Crowdsourcing: let your users create your content. No paid editors and authors, just user submissions and voting. Or create tools that allow users to create and store their OWN content online. To do lists, project management software, shared bookmarks, email. Think YouTube and Flickr.
-
Social networking: enabling a community of web site users to exist with sophisticated user profiles, friends, voting, and seeing what your friends are doing on the site.
Out of those four, crowdsourcing has been one of the biggest trends in web 2.0. Sites like Newsvine and Squidoo lets users write and submit stories. Flickr and YouTube allow them to post their pictures and videos for all to share. Digg allows users to determine what stories hit the home page.
And what is Facebook and MySpace except places that allow users to create content (their profiles) and interact? Those sites don’t have any actual content except for what the users create. Facebook is crowdsourced!
